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e EU has gun laws in its line of sight. As Europe aims to keep its citizens safe, EU ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday have approved a proposal which Reuters' Alastair MacDonald says will tighten gun control.>> It does ban the most lethal of weaponry from civilian use.

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Essentially rapid firing automatic machine gun type of weaponry. There is also an agreement on marking and registering all new or newly sold guns that come on to the market in Europe.>>

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France led the push for tougher controls after gunmen and bombers killed a 130 people in a series of attacks in Paris last November But it's been an uphill battle.

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>> It has taken many months. I think it was more difficult and trickier than France had banked on. And indeed the Czech Republic has insisted that it will not voluntarily go along with this. It insists that the people who will be penalized by this are sports clubs, shooting clubs, hunters, museums, collectors.

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>> The measures have already been watered down to allow many exceptions, such as for museums, target shooters, and volunteer national militia. The proposals are still to go before the European Parliament for further endorsement, but are likely to be in place by next year.